There are several factors contributing to the failure of Nigerian movies. People’s opinions differ on this issue, and many cite the lack of quality and sufficient budgets. Spending about a year in the Nigerian movie industry, working with top professionals, has enabled us to explain the basic reasons why many movies fail.
1. The Budgeting Factor
A common reason why Nigerian movies fall short is a lack of prudent and realistic budgeting. There are 2 ways that this has proven disastrous:
- They visualize a complete movie production with an unrealistic low budget. In the end, they will then end up taking shortcuts to finish the film.
- Sometimes the funds are just spent on irrational things. If savings are not put in place where it is necessary, the production cost may beat the predicted cost by millions.
2. Focusing more on making the film instead of on distribution
When looking at the production shelf of some movie production companies in Nigeria, you see a number of movie tapes sitting there with no hopes of ever getting out to the public. The filmmakers were too certain that distributors would queue up to sign a distribution deal, so they failed to find and secure a strategic distribution agreement before production.
3. Film personnel fail to handle their functions
Too many times chaos has risen during production since the filmmakers didn’t understand the various job responsibilities properly. In the process, crucial decision-making falls through the loop. Titles and job descriptions are in many cases also not clear – adding to the problem.
4. Ignoring the single most important factor in a film
Everyone spends money to entertain themselves, and the audience does not like feeling cheated after buying a movie at the stores or going to the cinema. The storyline is a key element of any good movie. As the technical quality of Nollywood movies improves, some producers forget about keeping their stories original and engaging. If the story doesn’t move the audience, it will usually fail. The story needs to be backed with a takeaway. The creators too often fail to pass a message or make the message unclear.
5. Spotting the audience before production and marketing
Failing to identify and measure the target audience for a film before making it has led to the failure of many movies. The audience were either miscalculated or overestimated.
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